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 TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday crude prices will go higher for various reasons, including threats to attack his country to curb its nuclear program which the West says is a cover to build bombs.
"Oil prices will go higher for different reasons that everyone knows, but one of the reasons is the threat of military attacks on our nuclear program," Ahmadinejad told state television. Oil prices are off their record highs but climbed $2 a barrel on Wednesday after Iran announced it had test-fired missiles, sending jitters through financial markets worried about a row with the West over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. After Tehran test-fired missiles last week, Washington said there should be no more such tests if Iran wanted the world's trust. U.S. leaders have not ruled out military options if diplomacy fails to assuage fears about Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is intended only to produce electricity. Israel, long assumed to have its own atomic arsenal, has sworn to prevent Iran from emerging as a nuclear-armed power. Last month it staged an air force exercise that stoked speculation about a possible assault on Iranian nuclear sites. Iran has vowed to strike back at Tel Aviv as well as U.S. interests and shipping if it is attacked, asserting that missiles fired during war games under way in the Gulf included ones that could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the region. (Writing by Parisa Hafezi, editing by Jim Marshall) |
